


5 times Hal shared his thoughts with his soulmate and 1 time Bruce did

by RebeccaAnabelBurrows



Series: Silver ink [2]
Category: DCU, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:00:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25109614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebeccaAnabelBurrows/pseuds/RebeccaAnabelBurrows
Summary: A companion piece for I Just Want A Soulmate Who Doesn't Hate Me, a Soulmates AU of the "special ink that makes the words you write on your skin appear on your soulmate's skin" variety.Probably could be read as a standalone.A quick  look at which embarrassing things Hal had written to his silent soulmate along the years without knowing it was Bruce and how it impacts their relationship.
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne
Series: Silver ink [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818595
Comments: 8
Kudos: 174





	5 times Hal shared his thoughts with his soulmate and 1 time Bruce did

1 

Hal had always written to his soulmate, as far as he remembered. He had never received an answer. It wasn’t unusual until a child turned into a teenager, but Hal had turned fifteen and most of his friends talked about the messages they got from their soulmates. 

Hal wrote to his soulmate on a daily basis but had never got anything in return for it. Most of his pocket money went into the special ink you used to communicate with your soulmate. 

_“Are you just shy ? Please circle yes or no.”_ he had written once, hoping for a reaction of some kind. 

Even Danny, who drew dicks on his arm with the silver ink, had gotten an answer from his soulmate.  
Hal had never seen him so excited than that day when he had shoved his arm under Hal’s nose and said happily “she answered me back !” 

Hal had taken a look at the line of vaginas on his friend’s arm and snickered. Those two really had found each other. Hal hoped he would get to meet her, she sounded fun.

Hal wished his soulmate had replied to him too. It had taken Danny’s soulmate a few years to answer him, but she had done so in the end. It looked like Hal’s soulmate was quite stubborn. 

_“I’ll find you. I’ll do my best to. And I’ll leave you alone if you ask me to. I just want to talk with you once.”_

So he had wondered if the girl was shy. Or prudent, as Danny’s soulmate had been. And then he had reached a conclusion. His soulmate wasn’t brooding or something. She was just too young to write to him !

 _“Oh my God. You’re a baby, right ? You’re like 6 months old and that’s why you don’t write back ?”_ he wrote on his arm. 

Obviously the baby couldn’t answer him, but Hal felt the need to write his thoughts, and he was used to doing so on his arms to share his thoughts with his soulmate. He hoped the baby’s parents wouldn’t mind. 

-  
2

It took Hal a few more years to accept that his soulmate probably wasn’t still a kid but just didn’t care. Hal tried not to mind being ignored and decided to keep bothering his soulmate. If she didn’t like it, she could write to him so. 

Maybe she just couldn’t write. So Hal kept writing himself. He tried compliments but it was difficult to compliment someone you know nothing about and it felt a bit creepy. 

Hal had always assumed his soulmate was a girl. Homosexuals were alright but Hal just wasn’t one of them. 

Or so he thought until Josh Daniels dragged him into a closet to make out and they ended up groping each other at one of Danny’s parties. They had been pretty drunk but it had been pretty good.

 _“Soulmate, I think I am a little gay.”_ he wrote that night on his arm. _“But I still like girls. Maybe it’s just that Daniels looks like a girl.”_

Daniels didn’t look that much like a girl, but it was a reassuring thought.

It was only a few days later that Hal realized what being a little bit gay - but not entirely - could mean. 

_“Oh God maybe you’re a guy. Are you a guy ? I am a guy.”_ he wrote. 

His soulmate didn’t say anything. Hal spent the night thinking about Daniels, being a little gay, and whether his soulmate was a girl or not. 

-  
3

Hal told his soulmate a lot of things. He had never ceased with the years. 

_“I asked my boss out. She said yes. I am happy. Are you ?”_

Sometimes, Hal worried for his soulmate. Were they okay ? Were they alive, even ? Not “not born yet” but “already dead” ? Hal tried not to think too much about this possibility.

He had written on most of his body, wondering if his soulmate was missing his left arm and unable to see what he wrote, to no avail. So, he kept writing, hoping for an answer.

Anything. He had tried other languages, some he didn’t even know. 

Nothing. That was all he got from it. It didn’t stop him. He kept writing, it had a cathartic feeling to it. 

_“There’s that guy, at work. My other work. A real joke. He’s wearing only black for God’s sake and acts like he’s God and I am scum or something. I think he has self-esteem issues.”_ Hal wrote one day after arguing with Bruce.

 _He’s an asshole and we argue all the time._ he added on his other arm. 

-  
4

So far, his soulmate had yet to write a single word on their arms, but Hal wasn’t giving up. It was possible they couldn’t afford the ink.  
It was also a possibility that they were just a jerk. In this case, Hal hoped his messages were pissing them off, but he doubted it. Someone angry would have answered by now, asking him to stop. Hal wondered if he should write something on his face, if it would make his soulmate react. 

It was probably a bad idea but Hal had toyed with it for a while before doing it after having a bad dream about his soulmate dying. 

Hopefully no one would accept having "fuck you" written in all caps on their forehead without replicating. It was exactly what Hal was hoping for, he really needed the reassurance that his soulmate was alive.

But nothing happened. Hal had checked his whole body several times this day, but it was in vain. Maybe his soulmate was really dead. Hal’s mind rebelled against this thought. He couldn’t believe that. 

So he kept trying to amuse his soulmate with his life, always hoping for a reply, but never enticing a reaction from them.

 _“Is fantasizing about a heterosexual guy you don’t even really like morally okay ? Asking for a friend.”_ he had asked once, a bit drunk. 

The letters on his arm had looked a bit wobbly, but he hadn’t known if they really were or if it was his blurring vision. Both, probably. 

_“Girlfriend dumped me. I won’t ever date someone I work with again. But the Man in Black is hot. Wouldn’t mind fucking him._ Hal wrote.

In the morning, he would wish he had been drunk enough to pass out instead of having a heart-to-heart with his soulmate. Not that they complained or anything. 

_”Kind words would be appreciated. Bad ones too, actually. Any words would do. A simple sign. A little cross or whatever. That’s just a bad day. I just wish I could share that with you, at least.”_ Hal wrote on his legs before falling asleep.

Silver ink was smudged all over his sheets in the morning. Hal groaned at the sight. This shit was expensive and difficult to wash. 

_”Sorry for last night. But you can judge me all you want, at least I have never given up on my soulmate.”_ he wrote later. 

-  
5

Hal had kept talking to his soulmate in the following months, but his tone had always been cold, even if you couldn’t really see that with written words. However, that day he was in a good mood. 

_“You’re going to laugh, but I am going to ask the Man In Black out. I was wrong. He’s a good guy. I like him, I think. and he’s really that hot.”_

_”Soulmate, I know our relationship isn’t always easy (you can’t blame it on me, right ?) but I can’t believe you’re a bad person. I have the feeling you don’t have an easy life and I hope you are happy too. That you have people who love you and that you love.”_

His soulmate probably thought he was a real sap but Hal cared about them, curiously. 

-  
+1

It was the first time Hal had found himself in space since he and Bruce had started dating. And of course, they had been at odds when Hal had left, which made him feel quite lonely.

After a long day of work, Hal had started to take his clothes off in order to take a shower.

He had smiled when he spotted Bruce's increasingly familiar handwriting all over his skin. 

He didn't think his soulmate would be so forgiving and willing to talk. Hal had been the one to walk away last time, after all.

There were numbered parts, and honestly it shouldn't be that surprising from Bruce. 

Hal had a few fantaisies about Bruce writing numbered precise and interesting instructions accompanied by arrows pointing to erogenous zones. Maybe he could convince him to try one or two later. 

He looked at the circled 1 on his left arm. 

_"1. I told you I hadn't written back before because I wanted to have some control on my life, to make my own choices."_

Hal refrained the childish impulse to write "is it confession time ?"

He had no doubt that no matter how out of the blue this seemed, Bruce had given it some thought before grazing his skin with the tip of his silver pen. 

And at least he wasn't asking for an apology. Which he may rightfully deserve, if Hal let himself think about it (he didn't).

He had never used the special ink before finding out Hal was his soulmate and even now was mainly using it to reply to Hal but rarely initiated a conversation that way.

Hal looked at his torso then. 

_"2. It isn't a lie but there's more to it. I didn't want to be a burden for my soulmate. You seemed so full of life and optimism - I didn't want to ruin you."_ was written on it, in an upside down fashion that made it easier to read from the bottom up. 

Hal shook his head. He was happy that Bruce was confiding in him but they should talk about Hal exercising his free will there and not being forced into this when he would come back.

He grabbed his own pen just before noticing new words. They had been added under the ones on his arm.

_"3. Come back to me alive."_

Hal nodded. He could do that. 

_"You know I'll do my best to make it happen."_ he wrote.

He wasn't one to make empty promises. This mission should go smoothly but you never knew what could happen.

After a few seconds of consideration, he added _"Thank you. I love you."_

He knew what this display of trust was about but appreciated it.

Hal had no doubt Bruce had noticed how uncomfortable Hal had gone when he mentioned his childhood friend's recent wedding and Bruce asked if he was talking about Danny. 

Hal had known in a sort of abstract way that the soulmate he had been writing to since he had been old enough to do so and Bruce were the same person but it had been the first time Bruce let him see it and he hadn't been ready to fully realize what it meant. 

Hal had spilled his guts to his unanswering soulmate so many times, he felt naked under Bruce's soft gaze. Which he had been earlier but this felt different. 

"I - I need some air." he had said, squeezing Bruce's arm on his way out to assure him they were fine. 

It wasn't Bruce's fault. If Hal hadn't treated his skin as a diary...

"Hal. I've never read anything here that makes me think less of you." Bruce said, following him outside. 

"Well, you're not the one who's dating the guy he told about everything that ever happened to him, allow me to freak out a little."

"Hal, I -"

"Just give me some space. Please." 

It was two days before Hal had to leave for Oa unexpectedly. He had hoped to meet Bruce on the Watchtower to make up before he left but Clark had told him he was busy in Gotham. 

Hal had regretted leaving the way he had then. With the activities they were involved in, it could easily have been the last time they saw each other. 

Hal looked back at his forearm. 

_"I love you too."_ Bruce had written. _"Even if you were certain I was a girl for the longest time."_

Hal rolled his eyes. He should just roll with it. Bruce knew things nobody else did about him. What about it ? Bruce knew things nobody else did about a scary amount of people.

Maybe Bruce knowing all this wasn't that bad. Hal would consider blackmailing him and he was certain Alfred wouldn't mind sharing colorful stories about his ward if asked.

-

**Author's Note:**

> You can thank a reviewer for prompting me to do this second piece. That's why feedback is great ! (For the shy/busy ones, I love kudos too !)


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